Bacon and Berkeley [Engraving]

Physical Materials

Introduction

The curation and digitization of the South Caroliniana Library
Collection of William Gilmore Simms Physical Materials represents an evolution
in the Simms Initiatives mission: in
addition to making digitally accessible Simms's literary productions, this
collection makes available various materials of iconography and realia that
help to situate Simms, and his works, within the personal and historical
contexts of the author’s life and times. These materials also provide
researchers with intriguing examples of the ways in which Simms’s life and work
were preserved by, and influential on, his descendants and other leading South
Carolinians.

...

The collection consists of items donated to the South
Caroliniana Library by the estates of two of Simms's descendants, Charles
Carroll Simms and Mary C. Simms Oliphant Furman, as well as items the Library
purchased at auction. As the estate donations included items that were related
to other aspects of South Carolina history, all items had to be carefully researched
and sorted to create a coherent, Simms-focused collection. Simms Initiatives staff curated these items according to the
following criteria: first, the item had to have a direct connection to the
author. For some items, Simms's ownership or use was obvious, and these were
included. For others, ownership or use was less certain; in these cases, we
considered whether or not the item could have been feasibly owned or used by
the author. Second, we considered the connection of an item to Simms's work and
subjects. For example, Simms Initiatives
staff considered a painting titled The Cassique of Accabee, likely by
John Gadsby Chapman. While both Simms's ownership of the painting and his
relationship with the artist are uncertain, it shares a title with one of
Simms's early verse epics, its subject matches that of the book, and it dates
from the mid-nineteenth century. It also came to the library through a Simms
family estate. So, its connection to the
author is significant enough for inclusion.

Researchers will find both two- and three-dimensional items in
the collection. The two-dimensional items are all illustrations, including
large lithographed and engraved prints featuring Simms himself, paintings,
family photographs, and small illustrations that have been cut from books,
presumably by the author. A significant number of this last group come from National
Portrait Gallery of Eminent Americans, a two-volume collection of brief
biographical sketches and illustrations edited by Simms's friend Evert A.
Duyckinck. Based on a 15 March 1861 letter, Simms knew about his friend's work
on such a project;[1]
the first edition of this text appeared in 1862, and the post-War letters of
Simms and Duyckinck are peppered with discussions of the work, and Simms's
eagerness to both possess and be included in a forthcoming second edition. From
this second edition, which issued in 1868, Simms apparently cut out many illustrations
focusing on Revolution-era South Carolinians and authors Simms saw as his
artistic peers. Many of the illustrations of Revolutionary figures were later
used by Simms's granddaughter, Mary C. Simms Oliphant, for inclusion in her
South Carolina history textbook, used by generations of schoolchildren in the
mid-to-late twentieth century. As a result, some of these items feature
cropping marks and instructions used by the publisher for inclusion in the
textbook.

Three-dimensional items are varied, ranging from furniture and
flatware used by the Simms family to one of the author's handkerchiefs. A
drop-leaf table and a set of swan-back chairs owned by Simms's father-in-law,
Nash Roach, are key three-dimensional items. Likely used at Woodlands, this furniture
was passed down and saw use by the family throughout the generations. Also of
interest are silver items, including a formal tea set and a brush and mirror,
emblazoned with Simms's self-created “Video Volans” crest. This crest
identified the tea set to South Caroliniana Library staff, who bought the set
at auction. While its auction listing did not include any reference to Simms,
the crest definitively proclaimed its connection to the author. Taken together,
these three-dimensional items do much to suggest Simms's everyday life, how he
conceived of himself within the contexts of lowcountry plantation society, and
his relationship with his father-in-law, Nash Roach, as well as other leading lowcountry
families, like the Babcocks of Charleston.

On the whole, researchers will find the South Caroliniana
Library Collection of William Gilmore Simms Physical Materials to provide a rare
look into the author's life and mind. These items both display and situate the
author's life and broad intellectual interests, providing
heretofore-unavailable contexts. Further, as Simms's plantation, Woodlands, was
destroyed in the waning days of the Civil War, many of the material records of
Simms's life were destroyed; this collection mitigates that loss by providing a
tangible glimpse into the personal world of one of nineteenth-century America's
most prolific and important men of letters.